Bantwana benefit from Fifa ban of Kenya
SA U-17 girls walk to next round of World Cup qualifiers
The SA women U-17 team progressed to the next round of the 2022 Fifa U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifiers via a walkover after Kenya was suspended by Fifa.
Last month, Kenya and Zimbabwe were banned from all football activities after their respective governments were found guilty of interference in the football association matters. The ban affected all the footballing structures and the Kenya U-17 women's team was no exception.
Bantwana were set to play Kenya at the beginning of March for the first leg and then the second leg on the weekend of March 19. Now that the suspension has come into play, the plans for the fixtures have been thrown out the window.
Simphiwe Dludlu's team moves on to the next stage of qualifying for the junior international tournament which will be hosted in India from October 11-30.
Despite not having a chance to play, Dludlu was pleased with what she saw from her side during their camp as goes about building a new team.
‘’We have received notification of the suspension of Kenya but we remained active in camp as we look forward to building a formidable side that must qualify for the World Cup,’’ said Dludlu.
"We continued with our preparation and selection because we are building a team from scratch. So far it has been positive, we played a friendly match against the University of Johannesburg. We put three teams together, a team of 15-17-year-olds.
"I can safely say there's a positive direction we have taken. A lot more work needs to be done. They're going back to their teams, we need them to continue working hard in terms of fitness and the basics of football, A lot of them are just being introduced to the international standards.
"It's looking positive, we're looking forward to seeing what the next couple of months are going to bring for us in preparing to qualify for the World Cup in India," she said.